Pat Buchanan’s Subprime Nation

Posted by: Gene M. | Jan 16,2008


Pat Buchanan’s been getting a lot of press for his editorial called “Subprime Nation” in which he calls out the United States for its dependency on foreign money.  Because he’s a hard-right Republican this is seen as a bold move because it amounts to him criticizing the current Republican administration.  

In the debate last night in Nevada between the Dems there was a lot of criticism of Bush (as opposed to criticism of each other) especially in relation to the subprime mess.  Obama talked of a culture of corruption in the mortgage industry in which lenders have not been accountable.  Not that Patrick Buchanan comes off as a bleeding heart liberal, but we live in a pretty bizarre world when there is some common ground between what the Dems say and Buchanan’s rhetoric.  

Where he breaks with Democrats is in his anti-immigration isolationism.  Yes, I’ve been offering some political opinions here but I’m not going to touch that issue on the credit blog.  I do agree with Buchanan that our reliance on foreign money is no more tenable than a person with limited income spending incessantly on a credit card.  The U.S. is really acting like the worst kind of credit card user.  Some isolationism does make sense, such as economic isolationism.  We need to be more self-sustaining without relying on foreign capital.  This means cutting down on costs and raising income (aka taxes) in certain sectors. If the government does not take some action in this area, the long-term sustainability of this country is in jeopardy, plain and simple.

We talk here of budgeting and paying down debt.  Right now, the United States is doing neither.  We’re like a person that borrows more than it makes.  How long do people think this can possibly last?  Fortunately, we’re going to have a new president in 08 – Republican or Democrat, there will likely be changes in the current system.  If there aren’t, we have a lot more problems than just one issue like the sustainability of the Social Security system – we’re looking at problems across the board.  

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